The Texas legislature could establish the Dementia Prevention and Research Institute of Texas and a $3 billion dementia research fund if voters approve a proposition in the Nov. 4 election, according to a Texas Senate resolution.
“What is interesting about dementia research is that it is already taking place all over this campus,” said Maya Henry, co-director of the Aphasia and Dementia Research Lab in the Moody College of Communication, which researches communication impairments caused by dementia to understand and potentially develop treatments.
Henry said the federal National Institutes of Health grants were a big part of the lab’s funding for years, but research funding cuts under the Trump administration have made grants harder to get. She said Proposition 14 will make Texas visible on the international dementia research scene and will improve care for people in Texas.
“A big infusion of money from grants that (the institute) might make possible would certainly allow us to do bigger and better things, synergistically, to kind of be greater than the sum of our parts,” Henry said. “That’s something we’re all really excited about.”
Earlier this year, Texas lawmakers passed Texas Senate Bill 5, which laid out how the institute would be created. State Rep. Brian Harrison, R-Midlothian, who voted against the bill, has openly opposed Proposition 14 as a misuse of government funds, according to Ballotpedia.
“What good could be done in the private sector with the $3 billion instead of the government taking it, handing it to bureaucrats to spend as bureaucrats see fit?” Harrison said in floor discussions of the bill, according to Ballotpedia. “This is corporate welfare on steroids.”
Joanne Pike, CEO and president of the Alzheimer’s Association, said over 460,000 Texans over the age of 65 have Alzheimer’s, and the state’s Medicaid program spends $4.3 billion annually to cover expenses for people with the disease. She said the $3 billion mentioned in the proposition comes from state surplus and would not place the cost on voters.
Pike said that from these funds, $300 million would be distributed per year to researchers for the next 10 years.
“When you think about the next two to five years, one of the things to also keep in mind is that the population of Texas is going to become the oldest in the country,” Pike said. “Age is the greatest risk factor for Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia, so it makes sense that, because Texas is going to be leading in risk, we should also be leading in prevention and research.”
Editor’s note: A previous verison of this article stated the total amount awarded to researchers is $300 million over 10 years. This is incorrect. Researchers will recieve $300 million every year for 10 years. The Texan regrets this error.
